Musically sound, 40 years on from Nairobi to London

LONDON: Anyone who’s listened to the Kenya Defence Forces Band will no doubt attest that it is a fine sounding outfit with talented individuals.

What many, however, may not know is that it calls for great finesse and specialised training to keep the instruments working well. This is where Benson Adolwa comes in.

We meet Adolwa, a London based Kenyan musician, at his home in Shichirayi, Kakamega County where he is busy at work.

“I have, for the last few days, been held up at this small workshop repairing some instruments. I have been repairing musical instruments for the military for many years and I must deliver some before I leave the country,” says Adolwa as he welcomes us into his workshop.

The journey into doing this kind of work begun in 2007 when he, courtesy of his wife Dorisilla Khamsali, joined a UK based college to study a diploma course in musical instrument making and repairing. After completion of his course, Adolwa joined the Professional Musical Instrument Making Association, which is globally recognised.

He is one of the few Kenyans who have been granted this certification and this qualifies him to work on musical instruments not only in

Kenya but also in foreign countries. Apart from repairing musical instruments, Adolwa is also a talented and trained musician who is especially good on the saxophone.

His dexterity with musical instruments has given him great exposure and he shares with us plans to tour Canada before heading back to the UK where he has a music band. Adolwa hit the London music scene due to his prowess with the saxophone which he has been playing since the 1970s.

“I am currently playing Afro-music and Jazz in London where I have a band. We are quickly establishing ourselves as one of the best bands in the UK,” he says.

Adolwa is no stranger to the Kenyan music scene having been a member of the Kenya Blue Stars band that was popular in the 1970s, especially for their song Sina Kisomo.

He tells us he embraced music at the tender age of seven years saying he inherited the talent from his maternal grandfather whom he did not see in life.

“I may not have met him but I was told my grandfather used to blow the horn to entertain villagers back in the day. I inherited this love for music from him and by the age of seven, music was already in my blood,” he says.

Adolwa begun by using pumpkin flowers, bamboo and tins to make melodies before graduating to making small guitars from locally available materials.

He then joined Chanzeywe Primary School in Vihiga County where he was a member the school choir and then moved to Starehe Boys Centre where he got to try his hand at various musical instruments.

“In 1970 I joined the National Youth Service music band. I graduated with grade four in music offered by Associated Board of Raw School of Music. I also studied mechanics at NYS,” he says.

In 1973, he joined Tanzanian Locaster National Band which was made up of youths from Tanzania and Kenya before joining the Small World Club Ring Melody, then Voice of Africa.

He was later recruited by Hot Boys Band where he worked for seven years before leaving to join Slim Ali in forming the Slim Ali band and later left for Kenya Blue Stars.

“At Kenya Blue Stars we recorded our song Sina Kisomo and Nione Wanangu. Sina Kisomo hit the airwaves as one of the best hits in the country and region,” he says.

In the early 1980’s he joined The Mushroom Band but later, in 1983, he left for Switzerland to study at Ban College where he graduated with a Diploma in Instrument arranging. He came back home and was hired by the Diani Reef Hotel as a solo player.

He was later hired by the Greensteds International School in Nakuru as a music teacher and it was here that his talent opened up globally.

“I formed a band with one girl who was in class four and we were later joined by more pupils. Our band was then used to advertise the school and we traveled outside the country including Uganda, Tanzania, Canada, Switzerland, Ireland and Britain to sing,” he recalls.

Adolwa expresses concern over the current crop of musicians whom, he said, are after making money and gaining fame as opposed to entertaining their audience.

“The current crop of musicians are only interested in getting fame, they are not disciplined as we used to be in our days. Some are not trained in music, they just wake up one day and start singing,” he says.

To promote music in the country, Adolwa has started a music centre in Kakamega where he hopes to nurture talent in the region.

“We already have centres in Nairobi and Mombasa, this will be the first in this region,” he says.